Pre-paid credit cards have heretofore been known, illustrative of which are those offered by companies such as the Mobil Corporation for exclusive use at their facilities. Prepaid cards have also been proposed for use in obtaining other products or services, for example, telephone calling cards.
In furtherance of the foregoing, a variety of implementing proposals have been made, illustrative of which are those set forth in German Patents DE 3,507,707and DE 4,012,842, British Patent 2,222,714 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,931,497, 4,900,906 and 5,340,969.
Although the proposals of these and other patents have addressed selected desired characteristics, there yet remain unresolved drawbacks to their use. Thus, for example, none of them offer the characteristic of universality, that is, acceptance at substantially all principal brand filling stations and combination filling stations/convenience stores. Thus there has continued to be a need for a system featuring a renewable pre-paid and versatile card that is acceptable at the gasoline pump and/or by a clerk at essentially all well-known brand filling stations and combination filling stations/convenience stores.